World Bank president Jim Yong Kim has urged the international community to respond decisively to the Ebola outbreak. Photograph: Paul. J Richards/AFP/Getty Images

The outbreak of Ebola could cost the West African economy $32.6bn (£20.3bn) by the end of 2015 unless the epidemic is quickly contained,the World Bank has warned.

The Bank said the future path of Ebola was highly uncertain and failure to adequately contain the virus would have potentially catastrophic consequences for the economy.

More than 3,400 people have died after contracting Ebola in the three most greatly affected countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, said the virus posed a global threat and urged the international community to respond decisively.

“With Ebola’s potential to inflict massive economic costs on Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and the rest of their neighbours in West Africa, the international community must find ways to get past logistical roadblocks and bring in more doctors and trained medical staff, more hospital beds, and more health and development support to help stop Ebola in its tracks,” he said.

“The international community now must act on the knowledge that weak public health infrastructure, institutions, and systems in many fragile countries are a threat not only to their own citizens but also to their trading partners and the world at large.

“The enormous economic cost of the current outbreak to the affected countries and the world could have been avoided by prudent ongoing investment in health systems-strengthening.”

The Bank said it was generating $400m in emergency financing for the three countries hardest-hit by the crisis. It said that successful containment of Ebola in Nigeria and Senegal was evidence that it is possible to limit the spread of the virus with existing health system capacity and a resolute policy response.

It added that the economic impact of the outbreak could be limited if action was taken now to stop the epidemic and the “aversion fear” which had driven neighbouring countries to close their borders, and airlines and other regional and international companies to suspend their commercial activities in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

The Bank said that after the epidemic had been contained, effort would be needed to continue work to strengthen an early warning network for the virus and encourage investments in health systems.

“Taken together, the containment effort, the fiscal support, the restoration of investor confidence, and the expanded disease surveillance, diagnostic and treatment capacity promise to first stem the Ebola epidemic, and then help to reverse as quickly as possible the aversion behaviour that is causing so much economic damage,” it noted in a report.

Fears are mounting about the spread of Ebola beyond West Africa after a nurse in Spain contracted the virus. UK investor confidence was hit by the news from Spain, sending shares in holiday and airline companies tumbling for a second day on fears that the arrival of the virus in Europe will hit travel and tourism.

On Tuesday, around £1.6bn was wiped off the stock market value of holiday and travel groups and shares in the sector extended their falls on Wednesday.

Tui Travel dropped 2.5% while shares in easyJet were 1% lower. British Airways’ parent company, International Airlines Group, and the cruise company Carnival also lost about 1%.

The World Health Organisation has said it is ready to provide support for Spain as the authorities attempt to contain the first case of Ebola infection within Europe. The Spanish nurse, who is in quarantine, helped care for two elderly Spanish missionaries who died after being evacuated to Madrid for treatment.

Tony Shepard, an analyst at Charles Stanley, said easyJet was the second biggest airline at Paris airports behind Air France and that France was the European country most exposed to Ebola because of its links to West Africa. IAG owns Iberia, which could face problems if the Spanish travel market dips.

The airlines are stronger than they were in 2003, when the Sars virus hit routes in Asia, because Sars arrived at the same time as the Iraq war and high fuel prices, Shepard said.

But he added: “Health concerns are one of the many factors which can affect the demand for air travel ... although Ebola has had no impact on the financial results of the airlines to date, it is possible to envisage a situation where the disease gets out of control. If investors want to take safety precautions they could lighten holdings.”